The One Where Monique Stays Up Until Midnight

The curtain on 2021 is finally drawing to a close. I am literally sitting here at the 11th hour and 59th minute trying to get this down before the clock strikes twelve. I originally opened this document as a last ditch effort to militantly plan the crap out of 2022. This year is going to be my bitch!! But 5 minutes in and other than a sudden urge to take a nap, stuff my mouth with popcorn and aimlessly trawl Facebook Marketplace, I've got nothing! Zip. Zero. Zilch.

I normally start planning Christmas in September, have my gifts wrapped by October and have all of my New Year's resolutions, calendars and planners written up and sorted by November. But for some reason this year I just couldn't get into the spirit of things. So here I am on New Year's Eve, lying on Katie's floor in my pyjamas, dreading that this New Year is going to be a horrible repeat of the one we are about to leave behind. But I know that this year has been hard on a lot of people, not only me. So I guess that's a small comfort that I'm not alone.

So in the spirit of togetherness would you like to play a game with me? It's something my family and I used to play every year. Basically we go around the room and take turns sharing a highlight and a lowlight from the year. Ok, ok so it's not a "game" but I think it might still be a good thing to do anyway. Whilst you think of something, I'll go first.

It would be hard to pick just one "lowlight" for this year. There were a lot of front runners for first place in this dumpster fire of a year. We said goodbye to our family home. I rented a house on Skid row, that I had to move out of 4 hours later. I was homeless for 3 months surfing from couch to couch, before moving back into aforementioned house. I fell through a window, the house I was living in got sold, "I've sunk out at sea, crashed my car, gone insane..." couple all of that with the uncertainty of Covid19 and all in all this year has left me pretty shaken up.

Now I guess it's time for the good stuff. At first I thought I had nothing to show for this year compared to other people in my family. Most of my friends are married, some of them even had babies this year. They have stable, well paying jobs, started their own businesses, have healthy bank accounts, decent cars and nice houses. Then there's me: I am a 27 year old, starving artist with a broken down car, living down on skid row with $40 to my name. By certain yard sticks I am a failure. However upon re-evaluation, this year I kicked some huge goals. I paid off all of my debts, I lost 10kgs, I got signed by an amazing agent. I worked my ass off and got not one but THREE paid acting gigs and to top it all off there is a photo of me on Melissa McCarthy's phone!! All of my hard work over the last five years is finally starting to pay off.

Once in a high school drama class our teacher asked us: if we could change one thing in the world what would it be? The first girl who answered said "World hunger." The next girl said "World peace." When it came to my friend Joshua, he looked at the teacher and said "Nothing." He went on to explain that if you remove all of the bad things from happening then you also remove all of the good. Every challenge and hardship creates an opportunity for kindness and compassion. Heartache makes, joy more sweet. Challenges create an opportunity for growth. Everything exists together in a delicate balance; but remove one thread and the whole thing unravels. I've been thinking about that day a lot recently.

This year is almost over, but it's your turn now. What were your highs? What were your lows? Was this year really as bad as you thought?

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We made it. We survived. We are not alone. We can do hard things.